Brown v. State

Chief Justice DURRANT,

opinion of the Court:

INTRODUCTION

1 1 In 1995, a jury convicted Debra Brown for the murder of Lael Brown. Fourteen years later, in 2009, Ms. Brown filed a petition for a post-conviction determination of factual innocence pursuant to Utah's Post-Conviction Remedies Act (PCRA)1 The post-conviction court granted Ms. Brown's petition and held an evidentiary hearing. The court interpreted Part 4 of the PCRA to allow its determination of factual innocence to be based on a combination of newly discovered evidence and previously available evidence. It then, based on the evidence…